Perth girls’ school aims to end online bullying war

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The West Australian

VideoNew research shows teens are more likely to report offline bullying than online.

An elite Perth girls’ school plans to unleash a new weapon in the war on cyber bullying by signing up to a website where students can anonymously report their concerns about students who are being bullied.

Methodist Ladies’ College is the first school in WA to introduce the online bullying alert system, Stymie, which also allows students to upload evidence such as screenshots of Facebook posts, Snapchat exchanges and text messages.

It is expected that other WA schools will follow suit, with the program’s creator telling The Weekend West there had been a surge in interest in recent weeks, after the death of 14-year-old Amy “Dolly” Everett, who took her own life in the Northern Territory in January after persistent bullying.

MLC’s new principal, Marie Perry, told parents yesterday that students and staff would be trained on how to use the anti-bullying initiative in May.

“Persistent bullying has been proven to lead to increased cases of depression, reduced academic achievement, social exclusion, self-harm and suicide,” she said.

“With statistics revealing that one in four Australian children is being bullied, we believe no school can be complacent about this issue.”

Dr Perry said Stymie gave students a confidential way to report concerns about others who they believed were being bullied, with the notification sent directly to the school.

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The West Australian

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“It’s quite unique because it is truly anonymous,” she said.

“Once it goes through the Stymie portal there is no traceable data back, so Stymie can’t see who sent it. It really does give the students that anonymity that they want and need in order to make those honest reports.”

Former Queensland teacher Rachel Downie developed the system four years ago after a Year 9 boy at her school took his own life and teachers found out later that other students had not passed on what could have been life-saving information.

“I think the increase in our profile this year we can definitely attribute to that poor young girl’s suicide,” she said. “We have probably increased 300 per cent since the beginning of the year. In the past seven weeks I have spoken to 21,000 students.”

Ms Downie said students also used Stymie to alert schools to other issues, such as students threatening suicide, self-harming, drug dealing or setting up fight clubs. She said fewer private than public schools had signed on for Stymie, possibly because of concerns it could affect their reputations.

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The West Australian

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Dr Perry said MLC did not have any significant issues with cyber bullying.

“But we want to keep it that way,” she said. “Teachers are trained to try to pick signs for things, but sometimes things do go unnoticed, so Stymie just provides another tool to our arsenal to make sure we can care for every student.”

Dr Perry, who studied teenagers’ social media use for her PhD, said students preferred to communicate online. She had implemented Stymie at her former school in Queensland in the middle of last year.

She said research showed that girls in particular worried that reporting problems could affect their social standing or lead to their phones being confiscated.

“Being in an all-girls setting, I think it’s good to be proactive and give them as many options for assistance as possible,” Dr Perry said. “It’s a really nice way for students to be able to help each other.”